


Finding Love in Neverland

by at1stsoo



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Fantasy, First Kisses, Growing Up, M/M, Peter Pan - Freeform, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27635645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/at1stsoo/pseuds/at1stsoo
Summary: In a world where no one ever grows up, a magic blooms between Kyungsoo and Jongin.
Relationships: Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai
Comments: 14
Kudos: 66
Collections: Challenge #10 — Surprise Surprise





	Finding Love in Neverland

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the mods for their tireless work on these weekly flashfiction challenges!

“But,” Jongin frowns, “but I don’t want you to go.” It’s simple. Straightforward. The perfect embodiment of an eternal child. _‘I don’t want this. That should be enough to make it stop.’_

“I know.” It hurts, disappointing Jongin. “And part of me doesn’t want to go either,” Kyungsoo explains, stroking through the boy’s dusty pink locks.

“Then don’t,” Jongin says with a petulant foot stomp. “Stay. Stay here with me. Forever,” he insists. “You love me. You said so at the Mermaid Lagoon.”

Those three words had been on the tip of Kyungsoo’s tongue for weeks. Months? Time has no meaning in Neverland. He’d felt them threatening to slip out while telling Jongin a bedtime story, while they stargazed at the top of the treehouse, or while they ran through the forest together singing. But each time, he had successfully swallowed them down. Splashing in the lagoon in the heat of the afternoon though: somehow that precious moment was what did him in. The sunlight had made Jongin’s skin glow a beautiful bronze, and the boy’s smile shone brighter than ever before. Kyungsoo had been jealous of the dozens of water droplets on the tips of Jongin’s hair and eyelashes, because they got to be so intimately _close_ to him, to _cling_ to him, adorning him like tiny diamonds glimmering and radiating beauty with every move he made. And then the words just… tumbled out. _‘I love you.’_ Jongin had tilted his head in curious fashion before grinning and responding in turn. The months that have passed since this confession haven’t altered that tender emotion in the least.

“I do love you.” Kyungsoo tears his eyes away from the pristine, caramel skin of the beautiful boy before him now and looks to the stars. “But there are other people, Nini. People that need me. People that I love.”

“No--” Jongin tips Kyungsoo’s chin back down so he’s looking at him again. “--only love me. Like I only love you.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes glisten with tears at Jongin’s obstinate demand. That Kyungsoo is all that matters to him, and he should be all that matters to Kyungsoo. This is why he can’t stay. This boy, this sweet boy before him, is so full of passion, devotion, tenderness… but he doesn’t quite understand love. And never will. Nini is frozen in time and maturity. His eternal youth took hold just a few years, maybe even just a few _months,_ too soon, stymying his growth and ability to understand. Kyungsoo is past this stage: he knows just a little too much about the intricacies of true love. About sacrifice and selflessness. About sometimes having to break a heart to save it.

He sincerely wishes he didn’t know such things.

Wishes he could stay in Neverland with the blissful ignorance that Jongin has, where love is only about feelings and the concept of ‘duty’ doesn’t exist. If only they’d found each other a little earlier, before Kyungsoo grew a tad too far. They could have loved on the same plane, with the same expectations and ability to give to one another. But now they’re separated by this burdensome knowledge over the complexity of love, which one has… and the other never will.

There is no future for romantic love between them. The power balance is too great: They could never really be more than parent and child. And it’s breaking Kyungsoo’s stupid, overly wise heart.

How do you explain unrequited love to someone who thinks they love you back? To tell them the power of the emotions coursing between them right now isn’t enough? And that there will always be a space in your heart for the sick mother and brother you’ve left behind, begging you to wake up from this false paradise and return to them in the real world? He's tried to talk about his family before, but Jongin just can't understand, insisting that 'the older ones' always leave and the words 'mother,' 'father,' and 'parent' are forbidden in Neverland.

“Nini, I--”

His words are cut off by an insistent kiss. A mere press of lips on lips that has Kyungsoo set ablaze from head to toe.

“You like when I kiss you, right?” Jongin asks, eagerly pressing a second, third, and fourth kiss to Kyungsoo’s all-too-willing lips. “I’ll kiss you more. And then you can’t talk about leaving. Double bonus,” he says with a grin, pleased with his plan. He cradles the older boy’s face between his hands, and Kyungsoo can almost forget about the great divide between them, melting into the warmth of Jongin worshipping his lips.

He lets himself indulge in just a few more of Jongin’s tender gifts, plush lips sliding against lips, while tears track down his face. Then he resolutely grips Jongin’s wrists and pulls the soft hands off his cheeks, placing a parting kiss to each palm. “I’ll miss you, Nini. And I’ll never forget you.”

Keeping his eyes closed to not see the look of betrayal that’s inevitably gracing Jongin’s face, Kyungsoo half yells, half wails, “Tink!” The pixie darts out of the tree above him and showers Kyungsoo with fairy dust, lifting him up, up, and away. Away from Neverland, and away from his first love.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt words: Disappointment, worship, worse
> 
> Peter is generally considered to be ~13 in the traditional Peter Pan story, so Jongin and Kyungsoo are roughly 13 and 14 here.
> 
> Thanks for reading. Kudos/comments are always appreciated <3


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